Computers have come to be used widely in every situation of our lives. In addition to traditional usages such as preparing documents and performing calculations, the functions and usages of the computer are dramatically increasing including drawing pictures and drawing architecture and machines.
To draw pictures, architecture, and machines, it is conventionally required to use a keyboard, mouse, tablet, CAD system, and the like to perform operations, such as inputting of letters and characters and drawing designs.
However, there are a lot of cumbersome operations to input letters and characters via a keyboard and to draw designs using a tablet and CAD system, requiring time to get used to. Particularly there is a problem in which, for those who have trouble in operating devices, such as elderly people, such operations are difficult. Further, “digital divide” is now becoming a problem in which a gap is generated in terms of information and opportunities between those who can use a keyboard, mouse, and the like to handle computers and those who cannot use a keyboard, mouse, or the like and cannot handle computers.
To solve such problems, a system for inputting handwritten information into a computer had been proposed. Such a system comprises a base and a drawing device. Moving the drawing device in relation to the base generates graphical information (handwritten information). The base is equipped with fine dot patterns of position-coding pattern that registers position information on the base. If drawing is performed on the base using the drawing device, the drawing device reads out the position-coding pattern. The computer system stores the position information on the base from the drawing device as a graphical input. In this way, the drawn content can be input into the computer system, output to the display, or stored to the memory (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-528387).